Potty training take 2

[lostprince]

I am in potty training hell. He's 3 and a half, strong willed and whilst he understands the concept and will use the potty on occasion when it suits him unprompted he mostly just wees on the floor/ in his pants. We tried for a few months just before he was 3 but got into a bit of a standoff situation where we were asking him to go too much and after a while he just point blank refused. Nursery did their best but he usually came home in a nappy after working his way through all his clothes. We decided he wasn't ready and he went back into pull ups for a few months and we re-launched with new pants, prizes and he seems genuinely excited. He seems happy to get me up in the middle of the night to go (I'm not complaining - rather that than no progress) and before we put him back in pull ups he would occasionally sort himself out but in the day time just gets distracted. I think the issue is he doesn't tell me he needs to go in the day. I am reluctant to just start sticking him on the potty at regular intervals because that's what got us into the standoff with him in the first place. We have tried stickers/ bribery with chocolate buttons/ loads of praise/letting him run around naked/ handing over control to him...We are only a few days into the relaunch but it's not going brilliantly. Any tips welcome. We know we're not good at this so won't be offended!

I recommend reading "Oh Crap it's potty training!". It's American but you can buy it on Amazon. We are just about to start week 3 with our 30 month old and he told us he needed a wee whilst we were in Toys R Us this afternoon. The book turned everything I had previously thought about potty training on its head but it makes so much sense!

Thanks, I'll have a look at that.

Haven't read the book perhaps I should have

One thing that helped with our v stubborn 3yo was making the next activity contingent on trying to do a wee/poo. E.g. Snack time/kick a ball/tv/painting once you've tried to use the potty. If she refused 'that was fine', limited fun until she did.

Not every time, but particularly if you thought she needed one but was too stubborn to admit it.

Poos came way later though, I've had to separate them in my mind and only 3months later is she starting to notice in time to do these on the potty/loo and still getting odd accidents.

If he's trouserless does he just pee on the floor? Mine accidentally toilet trained when it was warm and he was bare bottomed. But if I ask him if he wants to use the toilet or encourage him at all then he just stubbornly refuses. So I have to really resist the urge to ask him when it's been hours since he last went! No rewards, just an acknowledgement that he used the toilet. It's only been a couple of weeks and he's still struggling at nursery but I think that's because they're too encouraging for his liking